Long Nights
by Gehinnom
Summary: It started off fairly innocuously-they'd both managed to hit it off after fighting each other for Scrooge McDuck's last bar of sea salt ice cream, which Axel graciously let Roxas have... But then there came the vivid dreams, the sudden flashbacks, the uncanny intuitions... And neither of them have been able to sleep well since. AU. AkuRoku. Not a oneshot, but unsure about a series.


**8/13/14 - 2:44 AM**

***sigh* It is definitely becoming quite a long night for me. I think I'm going stir crazy… And well, what better outlet for me to vent my frustration than through some fanfiction for AkuRoku day? I'm really sorry for the brevity; I'll try to get back to this soon.**

**With love,**

**Kai**

**Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters listed herein.**

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"Axel! Wake up!"

A gentle voice pierced through the darkness that enveloped the room, but the redhead's soft snoring continued on.

"Axel! Wake up," the blond pleaded as he shook the redhead's shoulder. "Wake up, Axel! C'mon Ax, I need to talk to-"

"_What do you want, Roxas?!_" The redhead suddenly hissed at him, before pausing to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "_What is it, _Rox?" He continued. A handful of silent seconds passed by, and Axel sighed as he heard no further response. Axel cleared his throat, still groggy from sleep, before asking a third time. "What'd you wake me up for now?" He slurred quietly in a softer tone. The redhead stretched his arms over his head and let out a breathy yawn as he waited for the other man's reply.

It was well past midnight according to the neon green glow of the alarm clock next to them, and their room was pitch black aside from the moonlight filtering through the window. The blond froze for a second upon the redhead's awakening, looking down into a pair of heavy, half-lidded emerald green eyes, before averting his gaze to the window beside them. Roxas looked out into the city stretching on for miles before them, and Axel, still hearing nothing from the blond, let his eyelids slide shut once more. He grunted as he quickly began to sink back into sleep…

_Whack!_

Roxas had reached out and slapped the redhead swiftly upon his cheek.

"_Ow_!"

"Geez Axel, can you stay awake for just a _single _second?! I seriously need to talk to you!"

"Ugh…_ Can you not hit me while I'm in such a vulnerable state, Rox?!_" Axel howled. "I'm up, for god's sake!" He continued to shout, clutching a hand to his stinging cheek. The redhead groaned as he felt a heavy weight on his chest, preventing him from sitting up. Glancing upwards, he saw that the heavy weight was actually Roxas, who was straddling the redhead's chest, and Axel noted his skittish expression when the blond began to fidget nervously on top of him. Axel rolled his eyes. _Oh boy, it's going to be another one of _these _nights again…_ He thought grimly. A full minute must have passed by before Axel finally decided to speak up.

"So… Now that I'm fairly conscious…" Axel stated flatly, voice tinged with resentment. "What's wrong, Rox?" He managed evenly, despite his exhaustion. Knowing Axel, Roxas figured that he'd probably only have a good ten seconds left before he'd have to slap him awake again if he didn't spill the beans, and spill them quick. The redhead had an uncanny penchant for falling asleep faster than any narcoleptic ever could if he were tired enough, and Roxas was sure that he was _extremely_ exhausted by now. It seemed to be their new nightly routine. It'd been the eleventh night in a row now that Roxas had been jolted awake, and he never failed to wrench the slumbering redhead beside him awake soon afterwards. Axel really didn't have to ask the reason why he'd been woken up; it was just customary at this point. They replayed this same scenario every single night… And Roxas never seemed to tell him the truth.

"_Oh, it was nothing. I just thought I saw a spider_," he'd say nonchalantly. Or sometimes it was "_oh, I-I thought I heard something inside the room but, uh, it was… it was nothing_," he'd reply before letting out the most unconvincing chuckle. Then Axel would sigh and yawn and, being so worn out by the constant sleep interruptions, would inevitably just let the blond's strange behavior slip. Then he'd tuck that spiky head of flax-colored hair back underneath his chin and wrap an arm around Roxas's back, sighing once more before drifting back off into sleep. He'd never been woken up twice in one night, though-at least, not until now.

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**8/14/2014 - 1:41 AM**

**I thought it'd be best if I combined this next chapter with the first one to make it feel a little bit more complete, along with a little bit less short. **

**Truth be told, this series (or whatever it is/will be) is actually based quite heavily on what's going on in my love life right now. ^^" I still haven't really figured out what direction this story will take, or how I'm going to resolve my boyfriend's frequent night terrors (yes, over his intense fear of losing me) but maybe I'll be able to draw from one source or the other and… And… I don't know. Maybe afterwards, this fanfic and my relationship will turn out just fine? :p**

**Thank you all for the support. I'm really quite shocked that anyone liked my short, poor excuse for a first chapter. *laughs* Also, I apologize in advance for beginning what will probably turn out to be an extremely harebrained and unoriginal mess, but I'll try my hardest for my beloved readers.**

**- Kai**

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Roxas knew that he should probably just tell Axel what it was that was keeping him up at night. He just thought that the reasoning behind the whole thing was, well, rather silly.

"_Yeah, I've just been having this extremely terrifying dream lately of me having to watch you die in front of my very own eyes, over and over again… Sometimes we're in this big, dark room and no matter how fast I try to run, I can never catch up to you, and then you disappear and you never come back… but what usually happens is you get engulfed in some sort of dark cloud and fade away, and then you're completely gone… And no matter how loud I scream, nothing ever comes out of my mouth. It really cuts me up inside, y'know, having to relive it every single night..."_

It hardly seemed like a good excuse for his insomnia and Axel's sleep deprivation. The blond sat quietly on Axel's chest as he listened to the sporadic sound of cars zooming past their apartment on the street below them, before returning his attention to the matter at hand.

"Axel?" Roxas called out. There was no immediate response. _Well, I guess he does deserve some sort of explanation after putting him through all of this for so long… No matter how unreasonable it might sound_, the blond thought to himself as he straightened his back and looked down once more at Axel. The poor redhead, despite his sincerest attempt to stay awake and wait patiently for Roxas's reply, was slowly being lulled back to sleep by the lack of conversation. He was fighting hard to keep his eyelids from closing completely it seemed, as they lurched up and down in a desperate attempt to remain open.

"...Yeah, Rox?" Axel murmured almost inaudibly after a few seconds.

"Hey, Axel… I-" Roxas paused. No, that wasn't quite right. "Well, I've j-just..." he stammered, trailing off near the end. No, that wasn't quite right either. The blond paused for a second and struggled to think of the right way to phrase his feelings. He tried again and again to turn his incoherent thoughts into a suitable elucidation, before giving up with a small, exasperated sigh.

_Darn it… _Roxas's resolve began to falter as the silence dragged on between the two of them, and Axel's eyelids began to close for good.

"...You don't have to tell me, Rox," Axel said, low and soft from beneath him. "Just let me go back to sleep if you haven't figured it out yet."

"No, it's..."

The blond cursed silently at his impasse.

_It-it just isn't the right time_, Roxas reasoned to himself. _Besides… I can't find the right words to tell Axel what's really going on._ He let out another sigh._ They're just dreams anyway… Right? He'd probably just tell me to go back to sleep, the way he is now…_ Roxas thought as he scowled in the darkness. _Whatever… They're just dreams. They're _nothing_._

And so there it was. The culmination of another night of sleep interruptions and stilted conversation, and Roxas _still_ couldn't tell Axel about the nightmares.

The blond cursed again under his breath.  
_Darn it!_

But there was still one thing Roxas wanted to know before he slipped back into an uneasy sleep, even if it wasn't the right question…  
"Uhm… Axel?" Roxas whispered.  
The redhead's eyelids fluttered open once more as soon as he heard Roxas's voice, and he peered up to look the blond in the eye; he'd been expecting to hear another half-baked excuse. Did this… Did this mean that Roxas was finally going to tell him the truth behind his deranged insomnia?

The blond cleared his throat uncomfortably and fidgeted for yet another handful of seconds before asking his question.

"Hey Axel, do you… do you think that maybe one day, maybe after we get into a fight or something or you just… stop being interested in me… do you think that you'll leave me then?" he finished lamely. It wasn't quite what Roxas had been hoping to tell Axel, but it still gave way to a much-needed answer. His nightmares, his worries. It all boiled down to roughly the same thing: his constant fear that he was going to lose Axel, which was only intensified by his recent and vivid dreams.

The redhead pulled Roxas's unoccupied pillow from beside him over his face and let out what sounded to Roxas like a string of profanities. The blond waited sheepishly for his reply.

"...Seriously, Rox? You've got to be freakin' _kidding_ me…"  
Roxas pouted, although he was sure Axel was unable to see him through the fabric of the pillow.  
"No Ax, I'm being perfectly serious," the blond insisted. "Do you think you'd ever-"

"_No_," Axel stated in a muffled voice.  
"Ever… Wait, what?"  
"I said, _NO_," Axel grated out louder as he tore the pillow he'd previously grabbed away from him, tossing it back into its spot beside the two. He fixed his green eyes onto Roxas's.

"I'm _not _going to leave you, Roxas. Not once, not twice, not ever," the redhead stated in a low and menacing tone as he shot the blond the most irritable look he could manage.

Roxas didn't say a word, and Axel took it as a sign to continue.

"Got it memorized? Now drop it Rox," he snarled, turning onto his side and forcing the blond off of his ribcage. "Sheesh… Getting all worked up and waking me up every single night over something so _ridiculous_..." Axel mumbled quietly as he settled back into sleep. "Don't wake me up a third time, you hear?" The redhead called out over his shoulder. Roxas opened his mouth to object.

"_So then, why do I feel so… bothered by all of this, Ax?"_ he'd wanted to say, but sure enough the sound of soft snoring quickly filled the room again. Defeated, Roxas hesitated before grabbing the hem of the blanket he'd long since thrown off of him, and laid his head back onto his pillow, staring up at the ceiling. The sun would be up in a handful of hours, and Roxas would have to get ready for class soon enough. He forced his eyes closed and tucked the blanket over his body. Roxas hoped desperately that, with the little amount of sleep he'd gotten tonight, he'd be too tired to dream again.


End file.
